Republic Act No.
7192
Women in Development and Nation Building Act
(Promulgated February
12, 1992)
Section 1. Title. This Act shall be cited as the "Women
in Development and Nation Building Act."
Sec. 2. Declaration of Policy. The State recognizes
the role of women in nation building and shall ensure the
fundamental equality before the law of women and men. The
State shall provide women rights and opportunities equal to
that of men.
To attain the foregoing policy:
(1) A substantial portion
of official development assistance funds received from foreign
governments and multilateral agencies and organizations
shall be set aside and utilized by the agencies concerned
to support programs and activities for women;
(2) All government departments
shall ensure that women benefit equally and participate
directly in the development programs and projects of said
department, specifically those funded under official foreign
development assistance, to ensure the full participation
and involvement of women in the development process; and
(3) All government departments
and agencies shall review and revise all their regulations,
circulars, issuances and procedures to remove gender bias
therein.
Sec.
3. Responsible
Agency. The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA)
shall primarily be responsible for ensuring the participation
of women as recipients in foreign aid, grants and loans. It
shall determine and recommend the amount to be allocated for
the development activity involving women.
Sec.
4. Mandate. The
NEDA, with the assistance of the National Commission on the
Role of Filipino Women, shall ensure that the different government
departments, including its agencies and instrumentalities
which, directly or indirectly, affect the participation of
women in national development and their integration therein:
(1) Formulate and prioritize
rural or countryside development programs or projects, provide
income and employment opportunities to women in the rural
areas and thus, prevent their heavy migration from rural
to urban or foreign countries;
(2) Include an assessment
of the extent to which their programs and/or projects integrate
women in the development process and of the impact of said
programs or projects on women, including their implications
in enhancing the self-reliance of women in improving their
income;
(3) Ensure the active participation
of women and women's organizations in the development programs
and/or projects including their involvement in the planning,
design, implementation, management, monitoring and evaluation
thereof;
(4) Collect sex-disaggregated
data and include such data in its program/project paper,
proposal or strategy;
(5) Ensure that programs
and/or projects are designed so that the percentage of women
who receive assistance is approximately proportionate to
either their traditional participation in the targeted activities
or their proportion of the population, whichever is higher.
Otherwise, the following should be stated in the program/project
paper, proposal or strategy;
(a) The obstacle in achieving
the goal;
(b) The steps being taken to overcome those obstacles;
and
(c) To the extent that steps are not being taken to overcome
those obstacles, why they are not being taken.
(6) Assist women in activities
that are of critical significance to their self-reliance
and development.
Sec.
5. Equality in
Capacity to Act. Women of legal age, regardless of civil status,
shall have the capacity to act and enter into contracts which
shall in every respect be equal to that of men under similar
circumstances.
In all contractual situations
where married men have the capacity to act, married women
shall have equal rights.
To this end:
(1) Women shall have the
capacity to borrow and obtain loans and execute security
and credit arrangement under the same conditions as men;
(2) Women shall have equal
access to all government and private sector programs granting
agricultural credit, loans and non-material resources and
shall enjoy equal treatment in agrarian reform and land
resettlement programs;
(3) Women shall have equal
rights to act as incorporators and enter into insurance
contracts; and
(4) Married women shall
have rights equal to those of married men in applying for
passport, secure visas and other travel documents, without
need to secure the consent of their spouses.
In all other similar contractual
relations, women shall enjoy equal rights and shall have the
capacity to act which shall in every respect be equal to those
of men under similar circumstances
Sec.
6. Equal Membership
in Clubs. Women shall enjoy equal access to membership in
all social, civic and recreational clubs, committees, associations
and similar other organizations devoted to public purpose.
They shall be entitled to the same rights and privileges accorded
to their spouses if they belong to the same organization.
Sec.
7. Admission to
Military Schools. Any provision of the law to the contrary
notwithstanding, consistent with the needs of the services,
women shall be accorded equal opportunities for appointment,
admission, training, graduation and commissioning in all military
or similar schools of the Armed Forces of the Philippines
and the Philippine National Police not later than the fourth
academic year following the approval of this Act in accordance
with the standards required for men except for those minimum
essential adjustments required by physiological differences
between sexes.
Sec.
8. Voluntary Pag-IBIG, GSIS and SSS Coverage. Married persons who devote
full time to managing the household and family affairs shall,
upon the working spouse's consent, be entitled to voluntary
Pag-IBIG (Pagtutulungan
Ikaw, Bangko, Industriya at Gobyerno), Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) or Social
Security System (SSS) coverage to the extent of one-half (1/2)
of the salary and compensation of the working spouse. The
contributions due thereon shall be deducted from the salary
of the working spouse.
The GSIS or the SSS, as the
case may be, shall issue rules and regulations necessary to
effectively implement the provisions of this section.
Sec.
9. Implementing
Rules. The NEDA, in consultation with the different government
agencies concerned, shall issue rules and regulations as may
be necessary for the effective implementation of Sections
2, 3 and 4, of this Act within six (6) months from its effectivity.
Sec.
10. Compliance
Report. Within six (6) months from the effectivity
of this Act and every six (6) months thereafter, all government
departments, including its agencies and instrumentalities,
shall submit a report to Congress on their compliance with
this Act.
Sec.
11. Separability
Clause. If for any reason any section or provision of this
Act is declared unconstitutional or invalid, the other sections
or provisions hereof which are not affected thereby shall
continue to be in full force and effect.
Sec.
12. Repealing Clause.
The provisions of Republic Act No. 386, otherwise known as
the Civil Code of the Philippines, as amended, and of Executive
Order No. 209, otherwise known as the Family Code of the Philippines,
and all laws, decrees, executive orders, proclamations, rules
and regulations, or parts thereof, inconsistent herewith are
hereby repealed.
Sec.
13. Effectivity
Clause. The rights of women and all the provisions of this
Act shall take effect immediately upon its publication in
the Official Gazette or in two (2) newspapers of general circulation.
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